Physiotherapy Students Excel in First Ever Online Skill Assessment Conducted by American University
International Institute of Health Sciences (IIHS) the premier healthcare education provider in SriLanka keeps another step forward in the education industry and sets a benchmark for the whole industry by letting the affiliated University evaluate the local student's practical assessments through video conferencing. This has been done for the first time in SriLanka and in this part of the world in the Health care education industry.

The State University of New York at Canton (SUNY Canton University), USA one of the highest ranked universities in USA, is affiliated with IIHS to provide pathway education in the field of Physiotherapy. The pathway programme is to offer the Sri Lankan students an Associate Degree, with two years of studies in Sri Lanka at IIHS and the final year at the SUNY Canton University. This pathway has become a popular pathway for students interested in the Physiotherapy field as it reduces the cost of education immensely by studying two years in SriLanka at IIHS, while receiving good quality education with proper practical training and also because of the well experienced and qualified lecture panel.

Dr. Kithsiri Edirisinghe, Managing Director of the International Institute of Health Sciences speaking about the mission of the institute, mentioned that "IIHS is a Healthcare training organization, with a mission to bring innovation to healthcare training, infusing the traditional values of Healthcare professionalism, whilst adhering to international training standards. He further stated that the main focus is to improve the quality of lives of healthcare professionals through developing their personalities, by partnering with international organizations, to provide a total solution to the global healthcare professional need." IIHS has a number of foreign Universities affiliated with them namely Deakin University & Edith Cowen University of Australia, Hertfordshire University of UK, Open University Malaysia, TAFE South Australia and Box Hill TAFE, Australia.

Dr. Deborah Molna, Head of PTA programme in SUNY Canton said, "I am highly impressed with the quality and the manner in which the IIHS Physiotherapy students performed at the assessment, and expressing her views right after the assessment she has mentioned that she was surprised to see the knowledge and the care they showed towards the patients in analyzing and treating them. She further stated that she would love to have these students in their university for the 3rd year and she said that they would be an example to the American students and the benchmark they would establish in the amount of care and diligence towards patients would be hard to match. Coming back with the results and feedback Dr. Marela Fiacco, International Programmes Director has commended that the IIHS students have done remarkably well in the assessment achieving great results. This is a great milestone in the short history of IIHS as it is the 1st ever online practical assessment done in this part of the world.

Dr. Nihal De Silva, Dean of IIHS who has over 45 years of experience in America in the medical field, expressed his happiness in seeing the local Sri Lankan students obtaining high quality foreign education coming up to the level where they can compete strongly even with the American students.
Mr. Cyril Surasinghe, the Head of Physiotherapy at IIHS who has over 50 years of experience in various different countries including Zimbabwe and UK, gave out his view telling that he was impressed to see the students coming from suburban areas with just AL qualifications, coming up to such a high standard and that these students have shown the potential of the Sri Lankan students to the world. He also pointed out the importance of the availability of various different lucrative industries in which the SriLankan students can join in rather than showing interest only in traditional areas such as Medicine and Engineering.

Roshan Peiris, the student who got the highest marks stated, "I am grateful for IIHS for giving us this opportunity to study in New York, which is a great dream coming true. As I am from Awissawella and having studied in Hanwella Rajasinghe Madya Vidyalaya, which is a rural school, I'm so proud that I am eligible to study at SUNY Canton after completing 02 years at IIHS. Many thanks go to IIHS and SUNY Canton for making these pathways so affordable to rural community in Sri Lanka. I have planned to travel to SUNY Canton in 2012 and then apply for the registration examination for PTAs in USA and work in USA for a couple of years. I can pay back my full course fees from about 06 months of my salary in USA. Then I am going to come back to Sri Lanka and will share my experience, to add value to local Physiotherapy services.

Registration has commenced for the third batch of the Associate Degree in Physiotherapy, scheduled to commence in September 2011. IIHS would also be introducing a BSc Degree in Physiotherapy in affiliation with a Malaysian University for students who wish to complete their education in Sri Lanka.

For more information & registration, contact; Visit- www.iihsciences.com, Email- info@iihsciences.com No.704, Negambo Road, Welisara